Beyond her great heart, my Grandma Jensen was a big kid. I lived with her for a year and during that time she was more my best friend who was tempting me and joking with me about everything. I remember so many times when she invited me to be spontaneous - "we should go on a trip today" "but Grandma, I have class" "Oh, it's not going to hurt to miss a few days is it?" "I don't think I can do it, you mean you wanna go right now" "Yeah, now, let's just pick somewhere and go!" ..... sadly, I was the boring one, and probably missed out on some pretty crazy adventures.
I also have some cousins that gave Grandma a nickname "Sugar Grannie" - this was because she was always tempting us with treats... and so in that year that I lived with Grandma, I had no choice but to buy fat pants (which got pretty tight), but I have so many good memories of lunch buffets at Pizza Hut and pies, and ice cream, and cookies, and squares and I can still see/hear my grandma with her taunt "you have to eat it, I bought it for you and if you don't eat it it'll go bad"... it was THAT easy, I had to eat basically everything infront of me (no regrets!)
Grandma was always bubbly, bright and energetic. We laughed lots, talked about everything (she seemed to like talking about 'boys' as much as I did, and often tried to talk me into coming dancing at the Legion with her) and she was always willing to go out with me, even just to be company for the drive. One time she drove me an hour or so to do my visiting teaching, she insisted on driving because of the snow and we enjoyed listening to Elvis' Christmas CD the whole way (her favorite song was Mama Liked the Roses on that CD)
I love thinking about my Grandma, remembering her! I still feel sad and miss her, wish I could hear her voice and sit with her. I regret not telling her what she really meant to me, but near the end I didn't want to let her know that I was thinking it was getting close to the end. I'm still not sure if that was the right thing...
